mentoring

Practise where a new employee is apprenticed to a more experienced employee, who acts as an adviser and confidant in the workplace. In manual trades such as bricklaying and plumbing, this is known as apprenticing; in business, it is known as mentoring. A new employee is assigned a mentor, a more experienced, senior employee, who acts as a parent figure passing on their knowledge and advice.

Mentoring can be an extremely effective way of assimilating a new employee into an organization but depends on the quality and dedication of the mentor. Mentors do not necessarily have to come from within the organization. There are many human resource consultancies that offer mentoring and coaching services. In these cases the mentor may be providing their service to many executives at the same time.